Max Waxhead Menzies is the Full Sus Strava Group’s top performer, so when he contacted us and let us know that he’s clocking up all those kilometres and thousands of meters of climbing every week on a single speed we had to find out more. We hope you enjoy the tale of Max’s Big Five personal challenge – all aboard his trusty Contraband single speed. Photo’s courtesy of Jacques Marais, Pistol Pete & Cherie Vale.
Having only started riding six years ago, quite late in life, I was immediately attracted to mountain biking where I had just so much fun. Then, in June last year, when my wife was away, I took the perfect opportunity to get another bike!
I turned to the growing dark side of mountain biking: single speed riding. It’s a soulful and purist way of spending time on the bike, or so I like to think… it is very quiet and you pick the perfect line to ride all the time, always concentrating & becoming a better rider on a SS bike.
My mates hoped it would keep me quiet during group rides, as I tend to chat a little too much, but now with a single speed to talk about, that hasn’t changed.
I purchased a Contraband 29’er with a Reynolds 853 tubing steel frame and an Eccentric Bottom Bracket, then I built it up with Spank Rims, Hope SS specific hubs, a Niner bar, a Ritchie front fork, Thomson Laid Back seat post and a Brooks Swift saddle – running a 32/18 gear ratio. I also had BMC sand off all the excess lugs and Alex gave it a wicked paint job, naming it Scelerat – French for “rogue”, which is the model name given by Contraband. Grant at my local bike shop, Trail and Tar, did the build and Fred the bike fit, and presto the bike was born!
In the lead-up to last year’s Epic my brother and I were looking for a kit design when we stumbled on some family history that was truly awesome. It turns out my great-grandfather, Donald McDougal Menzies (my full name is Donald Max Menzies), owned the first bike shop in South Africa, in Wales Street Cape Town back in 1897. It was named Donald Menzies & Co, the Cycle Engineering Depot where he began manufacturing quite a famous bicycle called the Springbuck which was used by normal commuters at that time plus the Scottish Highlanders (a regiment of the then Cape Colony’s army). This was the first time the word Springbuck was associated with a sporting code. Donald also bought the Raleigh bicycle franchise and progressed over to the motorcar industry later in life where he was reputed to have been the first person convicted of a motorcar offence when knocking over and killing a donkey in Stellenbosch. So it turns out that my brother and I had some cycling genes in our blood. We used our great-grandfather’s company logo on our kit that Manie at Anatomic put together for us for the Epic in 2014 and I carried that theme through on my Big 5 SS Adventure.
The “big five” idea was born in last August’s Jozi2Kozi stage race, which I did solo. I intended it to be an introduction to riding a single speed, throughout a seven day event and I was hooked. The race helped with that too, as the Jozi2Kozi is a little off the wall like the Swazi Frontier. I then set about plotting five hard one week stage events over a 12 month period that I could knock off on Scelerat.
It started with Lesotho Sky in September where I rode in a team with Sean Fraenkel, one of the owners of Trail and Tar in Tokai. Lesotho Sky was a rugged and hard ride at altitude, which did lead to a domestic dispute on day two with my teammate as it is so difficult to match my ride speed on the flats to a team mate on a ‘normal’ full sus, geared bike. The organisers fortunately relented and allowed us to split up, with Sean taking my finish time each day. The bike and rider took strain – my arms took a pounding with the gnarly single track downhill sections and this proved to be the most challenging aspect on Scelerat. My body took a hammering plus I had to replace my rims, seat post, saddle and wheel hubs when I got back to Cape Town on the bike, to what I am currently using. While the rider got a full oil change, by a three-person team who now look after me full-time: Julia my long time physiotherapist and guidance councillor based at Trailand Tar, Kendal my chiropractor and Malcolm my GP.
I took another beating at Attakwas in January 2015 before jumping onto my second event, as a solo rider participating in the first TransCape ride from Knysna to Franschoek (reliving the old Epic route). TransCape was just unbelievable, beautiful riding, amazing people and fantastic organisers, offering the best food and accommodation of any stage race in South Africa. It’s an awesome event, but the first three days were really hard on my SS, as they were long district road days (day two was 140km’s!) which were not intended for a crazy bike on that gearing ratio. I found myself dropping into a horrible place which we call the “DF” zone (unprintable language for Full Sus) where you ride alone in your own bubble, sometimes pulling in a little Leonard Cohen to get you to the finish line. The endorphin rush when you push through is such a high! I got stronger as the week progressed and as there was also more technical singletrack riding later in the race which is better suited to the bike, and to me.
After all those kays we are now becoming a single harmonious riding unit. The bike has been installed with all the necessary bling which would make even Grant Usher proud (a beautiful bell, beads, Basotho straw hat and lucky pendant). I use the bell all the time… a high pitching one that resonates for quite a few seconds. Riders are always giving me chirps en route and the easiest way to respond is to give off a “ting” as I am normally gulping volumes of oxygen in an attempt to stay alive and keep my heart rate below 200 bpm!
The third event on my list is the Cape Epic, which by the time you read this I’ll hopefully have finished with my brother Ed. My pre-race plan is for Ed to help me make the cut-offs each day by offering a pocket on those flats (not many of them this year though!). He lives permanently overseas, making the annual pilgrimage to SA each year for the Cape Epic – it’s his fix. I have to still discuss this aspect with him, but he will have no choice as I paid for this year’s entry.
This should prove to be the hardest of the five one week stage races… and I am a little nervous of this one, in fact I’m very nervous!
Plan to wrap up the Big Five with JoBerg2C and the Cape Pioneer later this year, and then go in for another oil change and then try to spend some time with my wife, Isabelle and our ridgeback Moya.
Sidebar:
Single Speed Epic
Max and Ed Menzies managed to finish the Epic in a total time of 58:03:47.2. Which is absolutely amazing, given Max’s one gear option and complete lack of shock absorption for the eight rocky days.
Bio:
Max ‘Waxhead’ Menzies describes himself as 48 years young and is fortunate enough to be married to the very patient and supportive Isabelle. Despite Max’s single speed addiction, she has only resorted to violence once: when she returned from visiting her folks in France to discover he’d tattooed most of his right calf with a cycling scene. He’s a financial planner by trade and is currently plotting relocation from Cape Town to McGregor with Isabelle, their ridgeback Moya and their horse Reshin.
